Television (TV) advertising is a major component in assisting manufacturers, distributors, vendors, and other organizations interested in publicizing their product, brand, service, or viewpoint, in reaching segments of the public. Moreover, TV advertising during TV programs (programming ads) subsidizes the cost of a large part of TV programming delivered to consumers. Advertisers commonly wish to deliver (target) certain programming ads to one or more groups of subscribers, such groups having particular demographic characteristics, such as income, age, gender, etc. These advertisers typically have access to market and demographic studies that allow them limited control over delivering their ads to specific groups of subscribers. One such method is “linked sponsorship”, well known and used in the advertising industry. Linked sponsorship involves determining what demographic group or groups watch particular programming (e.g., from Nielsen data), and then buying (or contracting for) commercial spots during those programs for which the demographic viewership matches the desires of the advertiser. Improvements over the linked sponsorship model have been developed which allow advertisers to target their ads to the appropriate viewers or groups of viewers more efficiently. Such systems are disclosed in applicants co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/591,577 filed on Jun. 9, 2000 entitled “Privacy-Protected Advertising System”, 09/268,579 filed on Mar. 12, 1999 entitled “Consumer Profiling System”, 09/268,526 filed on Mar. 12, 1999 entitled “Advertising Selection System Supporting Discretionary Target Market Characteristics”, and Ser. No. 09/553,637 filed on Apr. 20, 2000 entitled “Advertising Management System for Digital Video Streams”. All of these applications are hereby incorporated by reference herein. These systems provide, inter alia, for the collection and processing of consumer and subscriber data in order to develop a profile for a subscriber or group of subscribers. These profiles, along with ad characterizations and other advertiser requirements, are used to match and deliver “targeted” ads to subscribers such that subscribers receive ads more appropriate for them (i.e., of more interest and hence more effective). Delivery of the targeted ads to appropriate subscribers/viewers can be accomplished in a variety of ways, as described in the aforementioned applications, including both upstream ad insertion (e.g., at a cable head-end or telco central office) and local ad insertion (e.g., ad storage and insertion at a subscriber's set-top box (STB)). These targeted advertising systems provide advertisers with the means to target and reach subscribers of interest to them more effectively. In the advertising systems mentioned above, delivery to the subscriber of targeted or program independent advertising is accomplished while the subscriber is viewing a particular program. Targeted ads can be delivered with particular programming or they can be inserted at the STB and presented to the subscriber independent of the programming being viewed. When used herein, the terms “programming ads” and “telecast ads” refer to conventional television advertisements (i.e., video ads played during conventional programming such as a 30 second spot for a FORD Explorer™ played during a commercial “break” in prime time programming).
Another means and medium for delivering advertisements to TV viewers is via Electronic Program Guides (EPG) or Interactive Program Guides (IPG). EPGs and IPGs are well known in the art as interactive tools that provide television programming information to viewers. Typically, an IPG (or EPG) display includes a menu of programs and allows the viewer to select desired broadcast channels. Normally, the selection is accomplished by the viewer's highlighting of the desired option with a remote control device. The IPG (or EPG) is typically implemented in software which runs on a STB connected between a TV and a cable system home entry line. When scrolling to a new column or row, the IPG inserts the appropriate programming information into each new row or column. This information is either cached at the STB, or requested from the cable system's head-end. Examples of such EPG interfaces are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,268 by Young, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,768 by Lemmons, et al. IPGs may also contain advertising, and typically do so by using space in one portion of the screen to display a static advertisement. These advertisements are generally pre-programmed and the same advertisements are displayed to all the subscribers (viewers). Displaying advertisements in the IPG is disclosed in International Publication WO9827723A1 by Yuen, et al. Often, the vast majority of the viewers of the advertisement deems the advertisement irrelevant and ignore it. Methods and systems for delivering more suitable and targeted ads in the IPG, based on subscriber/viewer profiles and/or demographics and the like have been described in detail in Applicant's co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/658,204 filed on Sep. 8, 2000 and U.S. Provisional application No. 60/238,056 filed on Oct. 5, 2000, and have also recently been mentioned by Yuen, et al. in International Publication WO049801A1.
Although these systems do provide for delivering targeted ads to viewers via the IPG, the IPG ads remain independent of conventional programming ads and are not linked to the programming ads in any way. This lack of linking or correlation between IPG ads and programming ads ignore the vast potential of increasing advertisement effectiveness by linking these two forms of ads, and thereby providing customized and enhanced ad opportunities for the advertiser to reach the subscriber without “saturating” the viewer with the same programming ad and causing the viewer to “tune out” the repeated ad.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a method and system by which advertisements presented or displayed in the IPG are linked or correlated with conventional programming ads such that ad effectiveness and advertiser reach are enhanced and whereby advertisers have a greater variety of ways to customize their ad and ad campaigns presented to the subscriber/viewer in both programming and IPG contexts, and which provides for a means for viewer interaction and feedback regarding the ads. Moreover, there is a specific need for linking and correlating targeted advertising in the IPG with targeted advertising during programming.
For example, an ad in the IPG, when seen by the viewer, followed by a similar or related ad played during programming watched by the viewer may enhance the attentiveness of the viewer during the programming ad as well as increase the viewer's pretension (i.e., memory) of the ad without causing the viewer to tune-out the ad. An ad in the IPG which is correlated with and which follows a programming ad may afford the viewer a means to interact with or request more information about the advertised product or service.